In 2013 I wrote about using IP sets and iptables to block IP addresses from a blacklist provided by organizations such as OpenBL. The Bash script I wrote for that was usable at the time, but in the intervening years many Linux distributions (including CentOS and RHEL 7) enabled firewalld by default, so I needed to update the script.

Recently I had an issue with Windows Update on a newly deployed Windows 7 VM. I’ve been using the same template to deploy Windows 7 VMs for a couple years, so it was strange that suddenly there was a problem. After a bit of troubleshooting, however, I successfully found a solution.

Online and B&M stores often have sales, such as the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but what if you can’t wait? What if you need to buy something immediately? Or, what if the sale prices aren’t quite low enough for your liking? Luckily there is another way to score additional savings: discounted gift cards. This is an excellent way to save a few (or more than a few) extra dollars on your purchases.

I have Fedora 21 installed on my laptop (a ThinkPad) and use the KDE window manager. Recently (today, actually) I ran into a bizarre problem with it: after undocking it, the screen went blank. Or technically, it stayed blank instead of turning on, since when it is docked I only use external monitors (two hooked up via the DisplayPort outputs on the dock, and one connected to the DisplayPort output on the laptop itself). It took some troubleshooting but eventually I solved it.

So the other day I took and passed the VMware VCP5-DCV Delta exam (VCP550D) to renew my VCP5-DCV cert. Originally I had no plan to blog about this since I took the exam on the very last day it was supposed to be available (and the same day of my cert expiration). However, a day before the deadline VMware extended it another two months to May 8! So since this exam is still available I’ll share my impressions and a few tips.

I recently attended the SCALE 13x conference in Los Angeles. It was my fourth time attending SCALE and as usual I found it to be an excellent event. Unlike some previous years I didn’t work in the expo hall (no CloudStack booth this year) so I had more time to watch presentations, and there were some great ones. Additionally, this year I submitted a presentation, Getting to know Linux-IO, which was accepted by the organizers!